Hydration drinks/tablets/etc that taste nice?

When the weather gets hot enough I end up having problems with getting dehydrated even if I'm taking on lots of water. I've used tablets like Nuun before to help but I generally find them to taste so grim that it's hard to persuade myself to use them.

Are there any hydration aids out there that actually taste nice or is the best I can hope for one that mostly masks the unpleasant taste of the supplements that they contain?

I've tried Zym and don't find it any nicer than Nuun. I'll seek out some High5 Zero and see what that's like. I'll also try getting some apple juice and seeing if my tastes have changed enough since I last tried it to like it now.

Torq Neutral/Natural doesn't really taste of anything, it just seems to make plain water 'thicker'. Mixes very well with more-or-less anything but the mildness is, I think at the expense of efficacy. Very easy to digest if you have a mincelite constitution.

My personal poison is High 5 berry or citrus. There's no denying they have a flavour but it's not unpleasant or medicinal and I find them quite effective, esp the caffeinated derivative.

TandemJeremy - Member
hilldodger - it will still hydrate. there is a theory that isotonic drinks hydrate quicker - you can use salts or sugars or a mix to get an isotonic solution

Yes, I know.

And I'm sure you know that the upper and lower limits of tonicity are quite well defined.
Whereas your 'pinch' of salt is an undefined amount and your fruit juice has an unknown amount of sugar plus other dissolved salts

I can imgaine you reaction if someone were to market a drink with ingredients listed as "a dash of this and a pinch of that".

Either buy the correctly formulated stuff if you want isotonic or just drink water and eat a few munchies if you don't.......

As above, they're carb drinks rather than something which will rehydrate you (although they've got some electrolytes in there too). I find Zero very palatable for an electrolyte tab, or Elete water, which is completely tasteless, just add a few drops to any drink you like.

Anyway, trolling and wind ups aside, I'm currently enjoying nuun 'orange with a hint of ginger'.
To get rid of excess fizz, I just shake well and release the pressure a few times before riding, this is easier if you use a bottle than a bladder.

The former will give you energy, and do little for cramp etc IME. The latter contain nothing but electrolytes, they're more palatable by and large, certainly in large quantities, won't ruin your guts, but don't actually provide any energy, so you'll need to get it from an alternative source such as bars or gels.

which is best for low sugar content- as a diabetic, I'm gonna be limited, aren't I?

It's all sugar, that's the entire point. If you want to reduce the sugar, dilute it!

Many of the carb drinks do claim to contain enough electrolytes to stop cramp, but many years of experimentation whilst racing has taught me that personally, they do nothing

Mmm, cramp is caused by all sorts of things I think - possibly only one of them is electrolyte deficiency, and it's not at all clear if the kind you get at the end of a long knackering race can be fixed with electrolytes. My experience with race cramp is that it is caused by lack of race fitness rather than anything I drink So similar to njee20

Blackcurrant SIS was the first one of these things I tried and I didn't like it much. I've tried Nuun Kona Cola and I didn't like that either. I had a dose of Nuun (maybe it was Zym) lemon and lime before lunch and that was what inspired me to start this thread so while it may work for some of you I don't find it very nice...

On the other hand, whatever flavour the tablet I had last night when I woke up with a dry mouth, headache and blocked nose didn't seem too bad, it may have been an orange and ginger or a tri-berry one. I had a decent length ride yesterday and it had been hot but post ride and in the evening I didn't feel too bad, I was drinking a decent amount and there weren't any obvious signs of dehydration, it's not like I was ignoring hydration until I went to bed!

My general hydration should be OK. I drink loads of water on work days - maybe 3 litres, plus other liquids, typically. I could probably drink more at weekends, though.

When I have used hydration supplements it's largely been after riding rather than while I'm on the bike. I've found that I drink less if it's not just water in my Camelbak and after one occasion where I needed to flush something out of my eyes but had only Nuunified water to hand I'm not keen on repeating that!

My main issue with this sort of thing seems to be that if it gets too hot, no matter how much liquids I take on I end up feeling very ropey after the ride, dry mouth, unsettled stomach, liquids just passing through rather than helping. I figure this is due to loss of electrolytes and stuff like that but admittedly this is not a field I know much about so perhaps I'm reading the signs all wrong.

I have noticed btw that the more I drink on really hot days the more I sweat - and the more comfortable I feel. Only when really sweating comical amounts can I deal with the heat. So the moral is get used to drinking tons whilst riding!

For cramp sufferers try taking zinc and B complex supplements.
If you don't like pills then bananas are a good source of zinc and wholegrain cereal bars good for B vits plus you'll get a good mix of high/low GI carbs